Are there any simple mobile phones for technophobes that just make and receive calls in the easiest possible way?Janet Gyford

Jack Schofield replies:I'd have thought any of the cheapest Nokia phones would fill the bill, such as the Nokia 1100. These have the advantage that if you ever get stuck, almost anybody will be able to show you what to do. The main disadvantage of the 1100 is that it is only a dual band phone. If you travel a lot, you will want a tri-band model such as the Nokia 6100 world phone at around twice the price. The 6100 has a calculator and currency converter and it supports Java, but at least it doesn't have a built-in camera!

CD catalogue

I have amassed a large number of CD-Roms with music files, photos and documents on them. Is there a straightforward way of producing a list of the files on each?Tony

While trying to follow previous suggestions to clear my PC of ads and pop-ups, I've come across www.noadware.net which on the face of it looks pretty good. It comes up with all sorts of stuff I find it difficult to believe I have. Is this program reliable? John Tollick

JS: Noadware was rated poor by Adware Report, which said it was "unable to detect real adware on our computer, and instead tried to fool us with 'false positives'. Unfortunately, some of the adware programs it claimed to detect were actually operating system files and legitimate software" (www.adwarereport.com/mt/archives/000023.html). Noadware has also been criticised for the overenthusiastic marketing of some of its affiliates. You might also take a look at these two links, the second being to Rentacoder: www.webhelper4u.com/clones/bilalahmed.html and http://tinyurl.com/42waf

I recommend sticking to SpyBot Search & Destroy (www.safer-networking.org, with a hyphen), which is free. If you want a commercial product, go for Webroot's Spy Sweeper or Lavasoft's Ad-aware Pro.

Syncing feeling

When I power down my work PC, it has to end a program called WCES manager trunk window. My IT manager said it was probably a spy program. Any ideas?Leif The Road Warrior

JS: I'd bet you synchronise a Windows CE-based handheld or PDA with Microsoft Outlook on your PC, and therefore have ActiveSync (WCESCOMM) running in the background. Download ActiveSyncToggle from Answers That Work: this lets you stop and start ActiveSync so it's only loaded when you need it. Go to: www.answersthatwork.com/Downright_pages/downrights_networking.htm.

Backchat

· Mike Cowlishaw asked about copying SVHS tapes to DVD. The consensus of reader opinion is that he will get good results with a DVD recorder with an S-Video input as long as he uses that and not the yellow phono connector. Bob Auger says: "Video adaptors with the necessary S-Video inputs can be bought from £50 upwards. In general, the better the adaptor the higher the image quality of the DVD will be." William Thomas adds that if you don't have an S-Video input, "even a composite signal from an S-VHS source (eg Scart or phono plug) will be better than an equivalent originating on ordinary VHS". Thanks to all who responded.

· David Lund wanted to convert a QuickTime video to VCD for his DVD player, and I suggested, with reservations, the free TMPGEnc. Marc Baldwin of Wildlife Online (www.wildlifeonline.me.uk) provided a comprehensive response that's too long to print. The gist of it is to buy QuickTime Pro and use File|Export to convert Movie to AVI, before re-encoding the result in DivX or XviD with VirtualDub. "I know this sounds like a lot of work, but I find it produces better results with less fuss and cursing than using TMPGEnc," he says. "The only point to be aware of is that conversion of MOV (and, especially, RM) files can often lead to considerable hair-pulling when trying to sort out the audio, which will more often than not be out of sync."

· Mike Fraser was looking for an online bookmark manager to replace Backflip. Tony Franks says: "I've been using Bookmark Tracker (www.bookmarktracker.com) for years. While not the snazziest interface in the world, it is pretty bombproof and completely reliable."